Our Privacy Policy

The Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society (‘VIFF’) is committed to protecting your privacy and any personal information we collect about you. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you about what personal information we collect, how and why we collect it, what measures we take to ensure your personal information remains confidential, how we use that information, and provide you with details about how to contact us should you have any questions or concerns regarding our personal information protection practices.

Disclosure of Personal Information

Your personal information is not shared, rented, exchanged or otherwise disclosed to any outside third party except where authorised by you, and/or required by law.

Who We Are

The Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society (‘VIFF’) is a film festival society and a registered not-for-profit cultural organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We operate a year-round theatre screening independent cinema and film-related programming such as Creator Talks, Master Classes and music/XR events. We are also the home of the annual Vancouver International Film Festival which runs for sixteen days and showcases the best in International and Canadian cinema and screen-based storytelling.

Our offices can be found at the Vancouver International Film Centre at 1181 Seymour Street, Vancouver, BC. V6B 3M7. Our income comes from sponsorships, governmental and private grants, donations, and commercial activities such as ticket sales and the rental of our theatre space by third party organisations.

Our Privacy and Data Commitment

To provide clear, honest and open information about how we use your data

To give you the choice about how we use your data

To use your data appropriately and in a way that would reasonably be expected by you

To only share your data with other organisations where you have given your consent to do so, or where we need to do so in order to fulfil our contract with you

To be accountable and responsible: to take active steps to protect your data from harm and to enhance the protection offered for sensitive data (such as data relating to disability, ethnicity or relating to minors)

To ensure that everyone working for or with VIFF, or in our venues understand these principles and share responsibility for delivering them

Why do we collect your personal information?

VIFF may collect personal information about you and use it for the following reasons:

To provide products and services to you and to communicate with you regarding those products and services (eg. sending you tickets, printing your festival pass, letting you know if your membership is due to expire, or informing you in advance if a screening time has changed)

To provide you with a tax receipt for a donation, to hold information about that tax receipt for Canada Revenue Agency should it be requested

To keep a record of your relationship with us so that we can provide you with information most relevant to your interests

To manage your membership or submission/application to participate or attend our programs and events

For marketing purposes: we may use your information to send you emails or special offers which we think will appeal to you

What information we collect and how

We collect personal information that is voluntarily provided to us by our customers, members, sponsors, website users and the public in general when they contact us via telephone, e-mail, web browser, or in person.

Alongside this, we may also collect personal information from business partners, visiting organizations and other third parties who have agreed to obtain the consent of the person the information pertains to before disclosing the information to us.

Buying Tickets

You give us your information when you buy a ticket, membership, pass, or donate to VIFF on our website, over the telephone or in person at our box offices. You also provide us with your information when you RSVP to a free screening or event through the same methods.

The information you may give us includes:

Name

Address

Email Address

Contact Telephone Numbers

Email

You may also give us your information if you subscribe to our mailing list via our Email Marketing Platform subscription form.

We keep a record of the emails we send you. These may be sent through our third-party email marketing platform (Active Campaign, predominantly used for marketing emails and newsletters) or directly from our ticketing system (predominantly used to send you tickets or information about changes to events or memberships).

We may track whether you receive or open these emails so we can make sure we are sending you relevant information. We may track any subsequent actions when you click on links in an email, including visiting our website, unsubscribing or buying a ticket.

We are compliant with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). Commercial emails we send will be sent in accordance with this legislation. If you are a subscriber to any of VIFF’s mailing lists, you may click on the link included at the bottom of every electronic message we send to manage your subscriptions, including the option to unsubscribe from all marketing emails.

Web Activity and Cookies

Like most websites, we use “cookies” to help us make our site better and easier for you to use. Cookies mean that a web site will remember you and enable online transactions. A cookie is a piece of data stored on a web site user’s computer hard drive containing information about the user.

Ways in which cookies work include:

Recording IP addresses for analytic purposes

Recording the type of browser you use, and the date and time you accessed the site

Connecting to users’ social media accounts to share content

In most circumstances, this is anonymous statistical data and VIFF makes no attempt to link this data, nor the IP addresses of the computers that have contacted our website, with the identity of individuals visiting our site.

Most browsers are set up to automatically accept cookies, but you can set your browser to refuse them. However, if cookies are not accepted on your browser, you may be limited in how you can use some areas of our website.

Social Media

VIFF uses social media to broadcast messages and updates about events and news. Occasionally, we may reply to comments or questions you send to us on social media platforms. We may also share a social media post you have made about one of our events to engage with our audience more closely, assuming the post is available to the public.

You may see adverts from us on social media or on other websites that are tailored to your interests. In some cases, these adverts will be targeted towards you based on your previous interactions with us (ie. purchasing tickets for a particular programming stream during our festival).

Film Submissions, Talent Scheme Applications and Volunteering

If you have submitted a film or other piece of artistic work to be considered for our festival or year-round programming, you provide us with contact information regarding your submission which may be more detailed than information you would provide when simply purchasing a ticket.

Similarly, if you apply to participate in our Mentorship Program, Talent Accelerator or any other talent schemes hosted at or by VIFF, you may be asked to provide additional information to help us assess your eligibility for participation.

To volunteer for VIFF - either during the festival or year-round - we may also require you to provide us with information about yourself to ensure we are placing you in a position that takes your abilities and interests into consideration so you get the most out of your volunteer experience and feel appropriately supported by VIFF.

Sensitive Data

The additional information outlined above may be considered ‘sensitive data’ and could include: details of your past work, educational status, expertise and skills, ethnicity, employment status, date of birth, and gender identity or preferred pronouns. Any information pertaining to those under the age of majority in British Columbia is also considered sensitive.

We may ask you to share with us any additional access or support needs you may have (in terms of disability, medical need, dietary requirements etc.) in order to ensure these requirements are addressed and any necessary adjustments are made by VIFF on your behalf, in consultation with you.

We only collect sensitive data where we have gained your explicit consent. This information is subject to enhanced security measures, is only viewable by those working for or with VIFF who need to know this information in order to perform their roles, and is used only for the purposes agreed. It is erased when no longer required.

Event Photography and Videography

When you participate in or attend a VIFF event, you enter an area where photography, video and audio recording may occur. Videos and photos may be used for promotional purposes by VIFF and its representatives. Our photographers and videographers receive privacy training so that they can be considerate of your rights as they go about their work. Please notify the photographer or videographer if you do not wish to be photographed.

Otherwise, by attending a VIFF event, you consent to interview(s), photography, audio recording, video recording and its/their release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction to be used for news, web casts, promotional purposes, telecasts, advertising, inclusion on web sites, or for any other purpose(s) that VIFF, its vendors, partners, affiliates and/or representatives deems fit to use. You release the Greater Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), its officers and employees, and each and all persons involved from any liability connected with the taking, recording, digitising, or publication of interviews, photographs, computer images, video and/or sound recordings.

By entering the event premises, you waive all rights you may have to any claims for payment or royalties in connection with any exhibition, streaming, webcasting, televising, or other publication of these materials, regardless of the purpose or sponsoring of such exhibiting, broadcasting, webcasting, or other publication irrespective of whether a fee for admission or sponsorship is charged. You also waive any right to inspect or approve any photo, video, or audio recording taken by VIFF or the person or entity designated to do so by VIFF.

CCTV

Year-round, VIFF operates CCTV inside and outside of Vancity Theatre (1181 Seymour Street) with the purpose of reducing the threat of crime and helping to ensure the safety of all our staff, volunteers and visitors.

During the Vancouver International Film Festival, CCTV may be in operation at the third-party venues we utilise throughout the event for the same purposes.

Any concerns regarding CCTV at external venues would need to be raised with the operating organisation and VIFF can provide you with contact information for these operators if required.

What we do with your data

We use our Legitimate Business Interest to use the information we hold about you to select and inform you of other relevant events or activities we think may be of interest to you, as well as providing you with opportunities to support our work as a registered charitable cultural organization.

We use your data to:

Provide you with tickets you have booked or to respond to information you have requested

Administer your ticket sale or donation including providing you with a Tax Receipt, where required

Contact you if there are important changes to your booking

Keep a record of your relationship with us

Store your communication preferences, so we know how you would like to be contacted, or whether you would prefer to not hear from us directly

Tell you about changes to the service we provide, inform you about new events, offers and opportunities we think you would be interested in

Analyse your personal information to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can ensure we contact you with information we think is relevant to your interests

Sharing your data with third parties

We will not share any personal details with any other third parties without your agreement, unless required in order to fulfil our contract with you, or allowed by law.

In general, the third-party providers used by us to fulfil our contract with you will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us. These providers include our Ticketing and Events Systems providers, and Email distribution services. We have agreements in place with each to ensure that your data is secure at all times, and cannot be accessed or used for any other purpose.

We may also share personal information with other organisations (such as Destination BC and Tourism Vancouver) who would use this information to develop an impression of how our visitors impact the local economy. This data is anonymized and aggregated (for example, address data will be reduced to a postal code count at the most-detailed), and will not contain identifiable individual personal information.

Occasionally, when booking a ticket, you may be given a choice to also hear from a partner organization who are either the producer or co-producer of the event you are due to attend. Where you explicitly agree for us to do so, we will securely pass your data to the relevant company who will manage and communicate their own Privacy and Data Policy to you. Should you then wish not to hear from them, please get in touch with them directly.

Data Transfers

Where personal data must be transferred outside of Canada, we ensure that adequate security measures are in place. Where we must transfer data to America, with providers such as, but not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, Sprout Social, Constant Contact, Active Campaign, Capacity Interactive, SurveyMonkey, FilmFreeway and Withoutabox, we ensure they are registered under the EU-US Privacy Shield.

At the VIFF Office, passwords and encryption have been adopted to protect your personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. Our servers are protected by a firewall and are regularly backed up to protect data loss in the event of an infrastructure failure. Our ticketing system servers are based in Canada and are also protected by the ticketing system provider and monitored regularly.

During an on-line transaction, information is submitted using the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. SSL-enabled web browsers employ a security protocol between the client and the server computer in order to ensure that information will be transferred to the intended recipient secured servers only. In person credit or debit card payments are tokenized by our pin pads, meaning your card data is encrypted from end to end.

Training is provided to our staff to ensure your information and privacy is respected at all times, and access to information is restricted by role.

Consent and Accuracy of Data

By choosing to provide us with your personal information through any of the means outlined above, you are consenting to its collection, use and disclosure in accordance with the principles outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless you ask us not to.

We will use our legitimate business interests to tell you about events, ticket offers and opportunities to support us for up to two years after your last ticket purchase or submission. You can opt out of these communications at any time via your online account, at the bottom of an email or by contacting us directly (see details below).

If you have not opted in to marketing communications, we will only get in touch with you regarding your enquiry or booking, or to otherwise fulfil our contract with you. An example of this would be if we emailed you to advise you of a change to the start time of a screening you have booked to attend.

If you have an online account on viff.org, you can change your communication preferences in the ‘Account Information’ tab under the ‘My Account’ heading once you’ve logged in. You can also ask any member of the VIFF Box Office team, or our Infoline volunteers, to update your preferences whenever you contact us via telephone or make a purchase in person.

If at any time you would like to access, review, correct or add to the personal information we hold about you, you are also welcome to contact our Privacy Officer directly by emailing privacy@viff.org.

You can also call our Privacy Officer, Jane Harrison, by calling the VIFF offices directly on 604 685 0260. Alternately, you can send a letter to our mailing address:

We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy, as it may be updated from time to time.

If you are interested and would like to learn more about your right to privacy under the Personal Information Protection Act, or if you are dissatisfied with a response you receive from our Privacy Officer regarding a privacy concern you have raised with us, you are welcome to contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, whose purpose is to ensure we are acting in accordance with the relevant provincial and federal privacy legislation.